Eng

10, 1929 in Roslavl (Smolensk region), Russian. Graduated from the Belorussian Conservatory A.V.Bogatyriov’s composition class in 1956. A member of the USSR Composers Union (1955). A Professor of Minsk Musical

College (1954 -1963), the Head of the musical department of the Theatre of Young Spectators (1955 -1964), the music editor at the “Belarusfilm” film-studio (1956-1967). A Professor at the Composition Chair of the Belarusian National Conservatory (the Belarusian National Academy of Music) from 1971 to 1999), from 1984 – a Professor. The BSSR Honored Art Worker (1966), the BSSR People’s Artist (1973), the USSR People’s Artist (1984), the BSSR State Award winner (1970). Died on January 12, 2000.

Eugene Glebov rushed into professional music, having announced about himself in a talented and distinct manner. His creative work is original and out of the beaten path, his music is recognizable, bright and pictorial. Looking for his own musical language, he decisively forced apart the narrow frames of traditionalism associated with the rigid aesthetics of social realism. He found his own language and said his word in the context of musical culture of the XXth century. The world won great and extraordinary talent in the person of Eugene Glebov.

He started composing music already in his childhood, though he had had no musical literacy till he was 20 while living in a small town of Roslavl of the Smolenk region, where they did not have even a single musical school at that time. And all of a sudden, at the age of 21, he, at one stroke, enters the higher musical school – the Belorussian State Conservatory. Professor Bogatyriov, who was then the rector, was taking quite a risk enrolling an unprepared in a professional way young man for the first course. That was the year 1950 – the time of totally regulated Soviet-Stalin system. Being guarded by solely professional instinct, Bogatyriov managed to distinguish an absolute talent and genius in music in that youth. Glebov’s great desire to realize his dream, hard work and astonishing working efficiency reaped benefits very soon and allowed for him to be spoken as of a prominent phenomenon in the musical culture of those days.

His intuitional orientation in musical thinking laws provided a hard ground for him. He creates his own artistic world and his individual style in music. While studying at the conservatory, he composed a lot, mainly large-size musical forms: a symphonic poem “The Lion’s Grave”, suggested by Janka Kupala’s literary characters, the cantata “Let’s Stand Up For the Truth” by Lesia Ukrainka’s poem, a fantasy on Belarusian themes for a folk instruments orchestra, a concert for dulcimer with an orchestra. Such caliber and dynamics were not typical of a student, but absolutely organic for Glebov. An extraordinary talent and responsibility with regards to the profession was manifested in everything he did, which also formed his personality and understanding of the artist’s place in a modern world.

Explaining his addressing to various musical genres and orchestra compositions, Glebov claimed: “A professional should be able of doing everything”.

Glebov’s creative package consists of operas, operettas, ballets, symphonies, concerts, cantatas and oratories, songs, chamber music, theatrical music, music for cinema and TV. His works are characterized by richness and beauty of melodies, preciosity of orchestra pallet and brilliant command of the most different musical compositions, trends and styles. It seemed that there were no obstacles for him in his profession: he was equally great in symphony, opera, ballet music, pop-music miniatures and songs. Listening to his music is the major esthetic pleasure.

Eugene Glebov was a real national and patriot who promptly responded to acute problems of the current world. This is clear from the musical contents of his work and their names: “To Peace”, “The Call-up”, “The Partisan Song”, “Shine, Dawn!”…He also coped with serious genres, as well as humor in music and jazz, the solidity and ponderability of a creative nature being felt in all his works.

Glebov’s popularity and demand in his work is reflected in his music performance geography which beneficially distinguishes him from Belarusian and many other Soviet composers. His ballets “Till Ulenspiegel” and “The Little Prince” were staged in Finland (Helsinki), and in the best Russian theatres: Mariinka in St.-Petersburg and the Bolshoi in Moscow. His ballets and musicales were also performed in other theatres of Moscow, Novosibirsk, Chelyabinsk, Nizhniy Novgorod, Samara, Saratov, Kiev, Odessa, Tashkent, Lvov, Syktyvkar. His symphonies, concerts, symphonic poems and miniatures were played in concert halls of Helsinki, Edinburg, Warsaw, Prague, Sofia, Zagreb, Berlin, Boston, Moscow, Kiev, St.-Petersburg, Riga, Tallinn, Vilnius, Erevan and others.

Eugene Glebov was a remarkable composer, a real professional. As a conservatory professor, he created his own composer school, where he brought up a lot of students and aspirants for thirty years of his work. All known Belarusian composers of today are “Glebov’s nestlings”: Dmitry Dolgaliov, Leonid Zakhlevny, Oleg Zaliotnev, Vladimir Kondrusevich, Viacheslav Kuznetsov, Jadviga Poplavskaya, Vasily Rainchik, Irina Tsvetkova… Being overbuisy, Glebov still found time for the state and public activity: he was elected a deputy of the BSSR Supreme Soviet, a member of the Committee on State Awards, a member of the USSR and BSSR Composers Union, the Chairman and a member of the jury of multiple contests and festivals.